harpsichord and piano forte help

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

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List

I know there are Internet pages for harpsichord and piano forte technicians, 
but I just need a little help from some of you who work on these things.

I have two harpsichords and one pianoforte at the university. Last week I 
tuned both harpsichords, and yesterday I tuned the pianoforte. There were two 
things I found on all three things. One was that they were anywhere from 25 
or 50 cents high. (in fact, one harpsichord was almost 3 steps high). When I 
talked to one of the professors about this he said it was the high 
temperature in the rooms that cause them to be so high. I found the 
temperature in the rooms to be at 70 degrees. The air conditioning in this 
building is pretty good. All the rooms have their own individual controls, 
and when I go there in mid August, all the room were "cool." None were "hot 
and humid"

The other thing I noticed was that all of them had about 4 or 5 broken 
strings, mostly in the lower end. Now, I don't play the piano, much less the 
harpsichord, and I have only tuned one other pianoforte, but I can't imagine 
harpsichord or pianoforte strings breaking because of hard playing. Am I 
right or wrong on this?

I suspect that the harpsichord professor had tried to tune these things and 
wound up tuning them very high. Am I right in that conclusion? Or can strings 
break because of hard playing, and will the pitch go up to 50 cents high 
because of an increase in temperature of perhaps 5 degrees?

Another quick question about the pianoforte. I took the action out, because 
some of the notes weren't working, and saw a small block of wood on each key, 
between the balance rail and the back of the key. The top of the block of 
wood was flared. I could not see what this block of wood is there for. I 
looks like it should have a piece of felt on it, like the hammer rest block 
on a Steinway, but there was no sign of felt anywhere. Also, the blocks of 
wood didn't line up directly under the hammer shank. Any one with an idea of 
what the block of wood is for?

Wim 

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